#12 Stanford Upsets #4 Utah!

Feb 17, 2014 by Anne Phillips

In a rare Monday night meet, #4 Utah's 2014 win streak was snapped by #12 Stanford!

Stanford hit all 24 routines as the Cardinal pulled the upset over No. 4 Utah, 197.000-196.300, and handed the Utes their first loss of the season.

Utah has been stellar on three events all season but continues to struggle on beam. Tonight, they completely fell apart in the final rotation.

"I don't know what to say," said a frustrated coach Greg Marsden after seeing his team implode on the beam in a performance reminiscent of last season. "Are we really going to do this again this year? It was a complete meltdown in a meet where we had a chance to go to beam and win it."

The coaches inserted Georgia Dabritz into the beam lineup at the last minute in place of Breanna Hughes in search of a big score.

"We knew we were eventually going to put Georgia in the beam lineup, because when she hits, it's a big score and we thought we'd need it to win this one," said Marsden about the last-minute lineup change.

Dabritz didn't fall but a near fall resulted in a 9.65. Dabritz led her team on the previous three events. She won both bars (9.925) and floor (9.975), while placing third on vault (9.875).

After Mary Beth Lofgren and Kailah Delaney fell in back-to-back routines, the Utes finished the rotation with a dismal 48.075 team score on the event.

"We're a great three-event team. Then we go over to beam and try too hard and that doesn't work," said Marsden. "It's our job as coaches to help them get better (on beam) and obviously we haven't done it. There's enough blame for all of us. Nobody did what they are trained to do and what they do in the gym every day."

Meanwhile, Stanford posted their highest score of the season with a 197.0. The Cardinal kept Utah close through the first three rotations and delivered a strong floor performance in the final event to capitalize on a counted fall by the Utes on beam.

“We knew it was going to take a great effort to be in the meet with Utah,” said Stanford head coach Kristen Smyth. “We knew if we could be close going into the third and last event, we had a shot to win. To finish the night strong with all of the pressure on us was nice to see.”

Canadian Olympian Kristina Vaculik continued to shine in the all-around, picking up the individual victory with a 39.475. Vaculik punctuated the Cardinal’s victory with a collegiate-best 9.950 on floor in the anchor position to close the competition.

“She’s still getting better and improving which is phenomenal,” said Smyth. “The confidence the team has right now has a lot to do with her leadership.”

Stanford entered the final rotation on floor trailing Utah, 148.225-147.725, and delivered clutch routines to seal the victory.

Watch the Pac 12 video highlights of the meet: